OTAGO.

Wellington Independent, Volume XVI, Issue 1706, 11 March 1862, Page 5

OTAGO.

Thes.s. Lord Ashley, Captain Wheeler, from Otago and Lyttleton, arrived in this harbour on Saturday last. By this opportunity we have received papers from Otago up to the 4th instant, from which we extract the following intelligence :-—

Our Mails.— Mr. Ward's mail service reforms seems to please no one. The Wellington Chamber of Commerce has emphatically declared its disapproval of them ; Otago has rejected them ; and Nelson, it is said, is more than half averse to them. It is almost stated in so many words that Mr. Ward has undertaken a brief on behalf of Auckland and Canterbury. We are not inclined to credit any motives of the kind j on the contrary, we believe Mr. Ward; with excellent motives, is committing that very common error of a young man entering on a novitiate of public life, the initiating measures of reform without courage to carry them out. Instead of real effective reform, Mr. Ward is substituting little peddling changes, calculated to "do more injury than good. Wellington finds that the only good it will derive is that of having its communication with Sydney cut off, whilst its English mails will be delivered only a day or two sooner. We expeot the Wellington people will highly approve the modification of Mr. Ward's plans, that the resolute stand made by Dunedin will entail. Otago will now stand in the same position as Melbourne has hitherto done ; it will be the depot for the arrival and departure of the mails. lustead of it being hooked on to a coastal service, as Mr. Ward proposed, it will now be the terrnmu3, and stand by itself. All that Wellington will have to do, to place itself in direct communication with England, will be to subsidise one boat monthly to briug down and return with the mails. We italioize the one because Mr. Ward through a careless examination of the dates, has become impressed with the opinion that the other provinces will require two boats monthly to enable them to take advantage of the Otago contract. Such, however, is not the case. The English mail is due in Melbourne about the 10th or I lth. Suppose it to come on at once it would reach Dunedin about the 18th. The return mail to Melbourne would have to leave on the 18th, so that the Provincial steamers bringing down the mails for England would be just in time to receive (he English mails from Melbourne. Judging by experience hitherto they would nearly always have a day or two to spare. On one occasion only has the mail from England reached Dunedin in time to answer the letters by the mail from Melbourne the same month. Although we hope to see this oftener the ca»e when the mail arrangements are made, and that the occasions will not be rare when the Melbourne mails will reaoh Dunedin in time to afford a few hours for answering by the monthly return steamer on the 18th ; yet, as far as the other Provinces are concerned, the margin will be so slight that one steamer from each to bring on and return with the mails, will be ample. Canterbury, Wellington, Marlborougb, and Nelson may therefore have their direct seryioas to and from England at a very trifling expense, and as far as the three last are concerned, dispense with the present protracted coastal arrangement. The Coleman Company's vessels will then be available to perfeot, as far as possible, the Sydney and the Inter-Provincial services —"Daily Times," Maroh 3rd.

The following is the conclusion of an article on the Mail Servioe, extracted from the " Colonist," of the 4th inst. :—

The result of the negooiation is as follows : — A bi-monthly steamer will be contracted for by our Provincial authorities, to and fro between Dunedin and Melbourne. Another steamer will be provided to establish a monthly communication between Auckland and Sydney. A line of provincial boats, to embrace both coasts of the Northern Island, and keep up fortnightly communication between the Provinces. The following will be a near approximation to the form whioh ihe time table will ultimately assume : —

EAST COAST, To arrive from Melbourne To lea?e. Otago, 17th. 18th. Lyttleton, 19th. 19th. Wellington 2 Oth, 21st. Napier, 23rd. 23rd. Auckland, 25th. WEST COAST. From Sydney Auckland 23rd. From Manakau24th NewPlymouth,2sth. 25th. Nelson, 26th. 29th. Wellington, by Picton, 30th. l ß t. Lyttleton, 2nd. 3rd. Otago, 4th. Bth. Downwards. ■ I EAST COAST. | Auckland Bth. Napier, 10th. 10th. Wellington, 12th, 12th. Lyttleton, 13th. 14 th; Otago, 15th. 18th.